Best Performance In The Field Of Muckraking

Perhaps it’s my obsession with Hamilton that led me to watch every entertainment awards show this past year. While watching, I loved trying to predict the winners of each category, even though I often had no idea about any of the movies/songs/musicals. I must have had the Progressive Era on my mind while watching one of these shows when I thought of a Muckraking award. If there were an award for the best muckraker, who would it be? I decided to let my students decide.

Here’s the assignment I gave my students:

Directions: You will create a Google Slides Document (PowerPoint would obviously work as well) for the awards category of most successful performance in the field of Muckraking. You will choose the 4 nominees and ultimately select a winner. Not sure who to nominate and choose as the winner? Check out THIS video for help.

Requirements for this category:

Title Slide

Description of what makes an individual a Muckraker

1 slide per nominee:

Visual of nominee

2-3 bullet summary of individual’s Muckraking contributions

Final slide: You choose the winner AND explain why you chose this person in 2 – 3 sentences. For example, how did their Muckraking impact society?

If my math is correct, that is a total of 7 slides

Here are multiple-choice questions I give my students upon completing their project:

Image from Jacob Riis’ from the late 19th century

1. The conditions in the image were most directly a result of:

a) A transition from an urban to rural society

b) An increase in settlement houses

c) A large labor supply and low wages

d) The emergence of powerful labor unions

2. Advocates for individuals such as those shown in the image would have most likely agreed with all of the following perspectives EXCEPT:

a) Using government legislation to address social problems

b) Increasing community organizations such as Jane Addams’ settlement house

c) The belief that hard work will solve all economic issues

d) Urbanization often did not benefit many citizens

3. Progressive reformers that sought to rectify the situation shown in the image were most likely to be:

a) Male farmers from the Midwest

b) Middle class females

c) Political bosses

d) Factory owners and industrialists

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